Page:Life of the Right Honourable Sir Robert Peel.pdf/9

Rh sufficiently demonstrate that, notwithstanding adverse decisions to the contrary, the public confidence has not permitted our members to be reduced in consequence of the second dissolution."

The reinstated ministry continued till 1841, when, being defeated in their proposed relaxations of the duties on corn, &c., they appealed to the country by a dissolution. The decision of the constituencies having been against them, they were obliged to resign, and in September, 1841, Sir Robert Peel came into power, at the head of the strongest government that ever existed in the country. At this time, the concerns of the country seemed in inextricable confusion. The revenue was several millions below the expenditure; bad harvests, and other causes, had produced great distress in the manufacturing districts; and in Glasgow, Manchester, and Paisley, the most awful destitution prevailed. Sir Robert was sensible of the difficulties he had to encounter, and faced them with energy and resolution. One of his earliest measures, was a modification of the sliding-scale, which regulated the duties on the import of foreign corn, and this was followed by the relaxation of other restrictions in the commercial tariff, including the removal of prohibitory, and the reduction of protective duties. To meet his financial embarassments, he proposed the Income Tax, and obtained an almost unanimous support for the measure. Addressing the late ministers, who objected to it, he exclaimed, "What have you done with the revenue I left you? In the year 1835, you found the affairs of the two great empires in this state: in the United Kingdom, the surplus of income over expenditure, was £1,376,000; in India, £1,556,000. You had then a nett surplus approaching to three millions! How have you left matters? You say I ever state the difficulties. Can you deny that you found a surplus of three millions, and have left a deficiency of five millions? On the 5th of